Creating Images For Video; About Creating Images For Video; Aspect Ratio - Adobe Photoshop CS6 User Manual

Creating images for video

About creating images for video

Aspect ratio

Create an image for use in video
Load video actions
Adjust pixel aspect ratio
Prepare images for use in After Effects
About creating images for video
Photoshop can create images of various aspect ratios so that they appear properly on devices such as video monitors. You can select a specific
video option (using the New dialog box) to compensate for scaling when the final image is incorporated into video.
Safe zones
The Film & Video preset also creates a document with nonprinting guides that delineate the action-safe and title-safe areas of the image. Using
the options in the Size menu, you can produce images for specific video systems—NTSC, PAL, or HDTV.
Safe zones are useful when you edit for broadcast and videotape. Most consumer TV sets use a process called overscan, which cuts off a portion
of the outer edges of the picture, allowing the center of the picture to be enlarged. The amount of overscan is not consistent across TVs. To
ensure that everything fits within the area that most TVs display, keep text within the title-safe margins, and all other important elements within the
action-safe margins.
Video preset file size guides
A. Action safe area (outer rectangle) B. Title safe area (inner rectangle)
Note: If you are creating content for the web or for CD, the title-safe and action-safe margins do not apply to your project because the entire
image is displayed in these media.
Preview options
To help you create images for video, Photoshop has a Pixel Aspect Ratio Correction viewing mode that displays images at the specified aspect
ratio. For more accurate previews, Photoshop also has a Video Preview command that lets you immediately preview your work on a display
device, such as a video monitor. To use this feature, you must have the device connected to your computer via FireWire (IEEE 1394). See also
Preview your document on a video monitor. For more information on FireWire (IEEE 1394), see Apple's website.
Other considerations
Both Adobe AfterEffects and Adobe Premiere Pro support PSD files created in Photoshop. However, if you're using other film and video
applications, you might consider these details when you create images for use in video:
Some video-editing programs can import individual layers from a multilayer PSD file.
If the file has transparency, some video-editing programs preserve it.
If the file uses a layer mask or multiple layers, you might not have to flatten the layers, but you might want to include a flattened copy of the
file in PSD format to maximize backward compatibility.
Aspect ratio
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